Well, he did it! After three years of classes, studying, and exams, Dan graduated from UVA Law! The week before graduation, Dan's parents came into town and wore Dan out. The first day, Dan took them up on the Blue Ridge Parkway and bowling. The second day, I took the day off and we went to Montpelier (President Madison's home).

This is my big 38-week belly.


We also went out to eat to celebrate at Sakura, a good tepanyaki restaurant in Charlottesville. Here are some funny pictures of people trying to catch the food in their mouths that they cook was throwing at them.




Saturday we went to Ash Lawn (President Monroe's home).

Sunday was the actual graduation day. First up was the lawn ceremony where every graduate from all of UVA walks down the historic lawn. It was raining so right after Dan walked down, his parents, my parents, and I decided to leave and snag good seats for the law school ceremony that had been moved to a gym due to the rain. It was so stinkin' hot in there!!



I am very proud of Dan and grateful for all of his hard work!

THE TABLES HAVE TURNED

Back in the day, I was obsessed with Saved by the Bell. And I mean OBSESSED! Forget cartoons, forget Sesame Street, forget The Elephant Show (although I did like the Elephant Show). If Saved by the Bell was on, I was right there in front of the TV, soaking it all in. And if I wasn't, I was crying because my mom was making me do something else. Like eat.


So the other day, Dan and I were over at my parents' house and hanging out watching Jeopardy with Mom while our laundry was going. During the commercial, I scanned the channels and saw that Saved by the Bell was on. (It was the episode where Kelly starts working at the Max and she thinks her boss is a hunk and ends up dropping Zack like it's hot.) So I turned it there for a few minutes to relieve us of such lame commercials as Head-On.


I turned it back in time for Jeopardy but Dan and my mom had a fit. "Turn it back to Saved by the Bell!! What happens? We must know!!"

Oh, how the tables have turned. Eventually Dan wiped away his tears just in time for Final Jeopardy.

Congratulations!

Yesterday Dan finished his last law school exam ever. Other than a paper, he's DONE! I'm so proud of him for all of his hard work over the last three years. He's the best! Time has really flown by. We're definitely going to miss Charlottesville when we leave in August.

And I'm sorry, but I just had to add these pictures. Dan is so cute!

B-day Celebrations

I had a great birthday! I went to work and during the day my boss took me out for a chocolate shake at Hoos Brews - SOOO good! In the evening, Dan took me to Red Robin to redeem my free gourmet burger. I got the Bacon Guacamole burger which was fantastic. And Dan got a burger and a chocolate shake which he shared with me. I know, I'm an addict. Then we went over to our friends' place to eat guess what? That's right, ice cream. And to celebrate the fact that Sarah and I were born on the exact same day. It was fabulous!

My favorite part of the day, however, was opening the presents that Dan got for me. In addition to some scrapbooking stickers and a really pretty necklace, Dan got me something that I LOVE! A coupon book - complete with illustrations. Some of my favorite coupons include one complete week of him doing all of the dishes, and one gallon of Moose Tracks Ice Cream. It's pretty much the best thing ever.

Here are some sweet pictures that Dan created in my coupon book:

I must preface this first one by saying that Dan thinks I don't like his back rubs...

And I would like to comment that my feet do not smell. Dan is just dramatic.

Either way, I love it! He's the best. And he's done with law school classes FOREVER! Very exciting. Here he is on his last day of school. I'm very proud of him for all of his hard work! (Don't mind our messy apartment...)

Happy Birthday!!!

Today is Kristen's birthday. She's telling me that she's over the hill. But to me, she's the best looking 34 year old around. Happy B-day, sweetheart! You're the bomb-dot-com.

Sorry for the lack in posts. We've been pretty busy! Our second birthing class was SOOOO much better than the first! The normal instructor was back and she was so practical and down-to-earth. A night and day difference. And FAR less into random acts of nudity. At least so far. We toured the labor and delivery section of the hospital and it looks pretty nice, so that's eased some fears as well. The only thing that concerns me is that there are only 10 rooms. Good thing out of the 7 girls in the class, I have the second earliest due date. I've got to stake out my territory. The third (and penultimate) class is tonight. I think we're supposed to learn more about delivery itself. That should be fun, right?

Saturday morning Dan and I went around for about 20 minutes while he took some maternity shots of me and my large belly. Here's one. I'm sure we'll put up some more soon.


Until our little bundle is born, if you would like to see pictures of one of the cutest new editions to the world, take a look at this guy - our newest nephew. He's now 8 days old.

Childbirth Class - Part 1

For those of you not interested in hearing about our first childbirth class, sorry. This post is not for you. For the rest, here's how it all went down.

We arrived at the hospital and went up to the room. There were 7 couples there (one left halfway through - perhaps they had the gift of foresight)... The instructor was a nice woman from Slovakia. We began by introducing ourselves and answering the question, "What do you hope to get out of this class?" which I thought was kind of pointless because I'm sure we all just want to know more about the birthing process. I mean, that's what the class is for! It's called "Preparing for Childbirth."

Anyway, so we do that, then she has this huge PowerPoint with all of this interesting and helpful looking information like how to get rid of back pain and good positions for taking stress off of your hips, etc. but then she cruises by all of the promising slides and stops on slides of miniature babies formed out of marzipan (which, until this point, I thought was just the female character in Homestar Runner. I've never had marzipan). Think I'm kidding? Take a look.


Then she keeps halfway telling us about things and then says, "But we'll talk about that later." Did we? No.

Right before our five-minute break, she shows us a video called "Michelle's Story" and promises us that it has a lot of relevance and we'll all be able to fully relate to the story of this woman. Who gives birth in Guatamala. In a hot tub. With her father videotaping. While she and her whole family are naked. And she sucks on the fingers of her newborn right after she pulls her out of the womb. What the heck! And let's not forget when her Dad zooms out of the birth and focuses on a pair of dragonflies mating.

So Dan and I passed a good 10 minutes awkwardly staring at the ground and being thoroughly
weirded out. Goodness!

The second half of class wasn't as bad. We talked about signs that accompany different stages of labor and she had a fake pelvis and baby doll that each of the men had to pass through the birth canal. As if they'll be doing that in real life, too. We ended class by dimming the lights and "relaxing" while she said such things as "Imagine your mind is a lake. Without any ripples. With cool, crystal clear water." At this point, I was thinking, "What kind of ice cream should I have when I get home?" And Dan was thinking, "Is there any way we can get our money back?"

Can I handle it?

Tonight Dan and I take the first of four classes entitled "Preparation for Childbirth" at the local hospital. Many of you who know me well might consider me a little prudish - I like to think of it as modest. How am I going to handle a childbirth video?? Yikes! I about died when watching a nature video in which it showed fish mating (gross! Thanks, Katy) so we'll see how this all goes down.

I'll just have to practice some of the breathing techniques that I'm sure they'll be teaching us as well.

In other news, I signed up for the Wilton Cake Decorating Class Part I at Michael's beginning May 6th if anyone is interested in signing up!

Yay for General Conference!

That's all I've got to say this week. That and buying things for a baby is stressful.

What I would sing

So after watching American Idol on Tuesday (yes, I watch American Idol), I was thinking about what I would sing if I had to pick a song from my birth year. I went online and found the too 100 songs of 1984 and man, let me tell you, 1984 was a rockin' year for music! Some of my favorite groups had big hits that year - The Cars, Huey Lewis & the News, Genesis (Well, I like Phil Collins. You know you do, too!) to name a few.

Anyway, after perusing the list, here are the top 4 that I would sing if given the chance and given the range that these singers have:

4. Let's Hear It for the Boy - Deniece Williams
A total feel-good song.

3. Love is a Battlefield - Pat Benatar
I really like a lot of Pat Benatar's songs. They just cut to the soul. Major power ballads. I mean, have you seen 13 Going on 30?

2. Jump (For my Love) - the Pointer Sisters

and

1. I'm So Excited - the Pointer Sisters

So after looking at the top 100 list, I realized that I really like a lot of the Pointer Sisters songs, too. Can you blame me?

I also like that song because it's in the National Lampoon's Vacation with Chevy Chase. And you may also remember it from the episode of Saved by the Bell when Jessie Spano has a serious caffeine-pill-induced meltdown before she, Kelly, and Lisa are about to get a record deal.

Way to blow it for the team, Jessie!

So, if you had to sing a song from your birth year, what would you pick?

Happy Easter!

It's nice to be back from my business trip to New Orleans. I think that's going to be my last business trip for a LONG time! Dan and I have been enjoying the arrival of spring and the pretty blossoms that are popping up everywhere. Not much else is going on. Here are our Easter pictures. In a few minutes, it will be time for my Easter egg hunt by Dan. Then he'll have to come hide in the bedroom while I put eggs around the living room. We hope everyone has a great Easter Sunday!

For those of you who like the belly pictures, this is me at almost 30 weeks! (29 w, 5 days.)

HELP!

So Dan and I are trying to figure out all of this baby gear nonsense. We need your opinions and suggestions. What strollers do you recommend? Or which do you NOT recommend? There are way too many options and Dan thinks that most of them look like spaceships with all of their gadgets and gizmos aplenty.

Let us know your thoughts.

Our Trip to Costa Rica

After flying into San Jose, we went and stayed in a hotel near an active volcano, a lake, and some rain forests. During the day, you could see dust trails rising off the volcano from the falling rocks. At night, you could occasionally see rivulets of lava streaming down the volcano. And, a few times, it rumbled like crazy.

So we hung out at the pool a fair amount and watched all the different kind of birds that flew all around, especially lots of hummingbirds that liked the flowers next to the pool. In that same area, we went on a gondola ride up a mountain, where we got to go on a tour of the "transition forest" (the area between a rain forest and a cloud forest, elevation-wise), and I got to zip-line down the mountain. That's why I'm all geared up like a doofus.

Here's me going down a zip line. We were actually instructed to position ourselves like this, so don't blame me for the goofiness of the photo.

Then, after spending a couple days in that area, we drove to the pacific coast and stayed there for a couple days. We went to a couple really gorgeous beaches, and to another beach where the waves were good, but the riptide was too strong.

Next to this beach, we went on a hike and saw a few sloths, monkeys, coatis, and agoutis; these last two things are basically day-time raccoons and long-legged guinea pigs.
So, it was a lot of fun. Here's a video of our tour guide going down the zip line at our first destination. He took our camera down with him, to get a video of what it's like. It was more fun than it looks. When he looks down, it's probably 500 feet to the ground (this one got up to 200 meters off the ground).

So that last post obviously flopped. Not too many Pinewood Derby aficionados checking our blog, I guess. So here's a picture of Eater X.

In the world of competitive eating, he's not close to being the best, but isn't that nickname cool? It's right up there with The Black Widow.

If you were a competitive eater, what would your nickname be? Mine would be Gastronomus Maximus. I think I'd pass on the face paint though. Unless it was eating-enhancement face paint.

Pinewood Derby

Last night our Elders' Quorum had a Pinewood Derby. I was pretty excited about the whole thing. I spent a little more than an hour one night this week plotting out what I would make with my block of wood and making very rough cuts with an enormous wood saw by hand on our living room floor, since it was too cold to do it outside. I don't recommend cutting a 2"x1.5" piece of wood this way. Then, I made the next cuts with a jigsaw borrowed from a friend, a utility knife, a drill, and again, a hand saw. I drilled holes in the bottom to put some lead weights in, and accidentally drilled straight through the car, covering the hole with one of the convenient number stickers that came with the car. Here's what I had:

So when I got to the Derby, I weighed my car, and it came in at about half the weight allowed. So, I borrowed a couple weights off of one of the Elders (yes, the Elders were there, with pretty sweet cars too), attached some more weights to the top, and here's the final, intimidating product:

Sadly, after probably 4 hours of working on my car, it came in sixth. It at least got into the final round, but took last out of those cars. And it did better than others that obviously took even more time to create. Of course, what made it disappointing was that a guy who took his unpainted wood block, whittled down the front corners, and taped quarters on the back came in fourth. I want my Saturday back. Here's a picture of the competition, with the winning three cars closest in the foreground:

The Batmobile is an Elder's car. I guess some Elders lift weights with bagfuls of the Book of Mormon, and some make Pinewood Derby cars. To each his own.

If you have any winning Pinewood Derby strategies, please post them for next time around. Happy derbying.

Well, I just got tagged for the first time ever so I guess I'll give it a go. Plus, I don't really have anything else too exciting to write about! Here it goes...

10 years ago I was...
In 8th grade and pretty much the most random dresser ever - bright orange bell bottoms, HUGE baggy pants, power ranger t-shirts, you name it. I was also voted "Most Likely to Make a Fashion Statement" by my peers. At the time I was pretty excited. Looking back, I think they were mocking me and my lack of fashion sense.

If I were suddenly a billionaire...
I would pay off our student loans! That would be awesome. And I would travel to every continent other than Antarctica. I would also give money to friends/family/others. I would also buy a bongo drum. I've been asking for a bongo drum for years but everyone other than me thinks that's a bad idea. I don't know why. I've got killer rhythm.

Things on my to do list today...
Not much. We don't do much on Sunday aside from church. I'd like to write in the baby's journal I'm keeping. And make sure I've read the Sunday School lesson for next week. And eat ice cream. That's always a top priority.

3 bad habits...
Like Betsy, who tagged me, I watch too much TV.
I used to totally gnaw off my finger nails. I stopped doing it my first year of college but then I started again! After being embarrassed to go get manicures over the summer w/ ladies from Dan's internship, I decided it was time to quit. Since then, I've been pretty good about not biting them. Today, they look fantastic if I do say so myself.
Surfing the internet when I should be doing more productive things.

Places I've lived...
Oak Park, California
Earlysville, Virginia
Provo, Utah

5 Jobs I've had...
Hostess at a local restaurant
Cashier/bagger at local grocery store
MTC CAFETERIA! BEST JOB EVER! (Thanks, Britt)
Night office manager of student apartment complex (Thanks again, Britt!)
Outreach Coordinator for nonprofit

5 Things about me...
I love Dan!
I got kissed by Franki Valli when I was 14 and it was the best day of my life until I got married.
Try not to be jealous.

I can't think of anything else right now and Dan wants to play Boggle so maybe I'll add some more later. If you're still reading this, you rock!

The Best of Both Worlds

In an effort to help us cease speculation about the future appearance of our little one, my brother Ryan put together this picture using bits and pieces from both me and Dan's absolute best attributes. Isn't he thoughtful? So, we'd like to introduce you to the munchkin in my belly:Look out, world!

Houston, we have a...

Today we had our "big" ultrasound. Other than waiting in the waiting room for OVER THIRTY MINUTES past when the appointment was supposed to start, the appointment was really cool. The ultrasound technician was really thorough checking out baby bean and making sure that all of its parts are in working order. We got to see all kinds of its organs and things. We liked when she turned on this thing that lets you see the blood flow in and out of the umbilical cord. At one point, she was looking at the stomach and Dan and I both thought we caught a glimpse of something. Sure enough, later in the ultrasound we found out that we're having a baby boy! Dan had a feeling that it was going to be a boy. He was right. I guess it's a manly intuition. At first, the baby was being pretty modest and wouldn't let her get a good look, but later on the proof was undeniable. Yay! We're having a little Dan. Of course, we had all kinds of girls names that we liked. Guess we'll have to save those for later. Unless we want to name our son Naomi... We have only a few boys names that we can both tolerate. If you have any suggestions, send them our way!
Also, to get a glimpse of what 50% of our little one might look like, here's a picture of Dan at 8 months. He's a dollface.

That's right. Try not to be jealous! I have hereby been declared a VIT by Ben & Jerry's. "What does this mean?" you ask. Free ice cream? Free deals? Fame and fortune? Say as to what flavors should become a part of the Ben & Jerry's legacy? Oh, no, my friends. I'll tell you.

Being a VIT means that each Tuesday in February, from 5-7 p.m., I can go to B&J's and get a free sample of a new flavors. Sounds good, right? Well, come to find out this free sample is 1 ounce. 1 stinkin' ounce. But the good news is that I can bring friends if I do decide to go all the way to Ben and Jerry's for 1 tiny ounce of ice cream goodness. If you're interested, this week it's cake batter. Let me know if you want to go. Actually, Tuesday might be a good day since it's supposed to be 70 degrees!

And in other news, we should hopefully know if we're having a boy or girl TOMORROW!

Life in Copeley

Despite all of the drawbacks to living in family housing (no dishwasher or garbage disposal, 1 washer/dryer per building, past residents' hairs glued to the floor, etc.), I must admit that Dan and I have enjoyed our time here for the most part. Dan's walk to school is under 5 minutes. My drive to work is under 5 minutes. We've seen squirrels, groundhogs, woodpeckers, deer, skunks, raccoons and foxes all pretty close to our aparment.

Perhaps one of the best things about living here is the diversity of the residents. We're the only Americans in our building. We've got Chinese, Chilean, and Indian neighbors. In the building behind ours is a Russian family. Just the other night the dad decided to have a big old fire right underneath his make-shift sun porch (a tarp on sticks). The fire may not look big, but take my word for it - it looked like his tarp was going to catch on fire at any minute. Sorry the picture isn't bigger. When I zoomed in, it got blurry... The guy who lived there before him was from France and one day I looked out to see him and his buddies having a bongo party. They were all just slapping their bongos while other people danced. He was pretty crazy but very entertaining as well. I hate to say it, but we're going to miss this place when we move this summer!

In other news, thanks to everyone who has taken our gender poll! The final tally was 16 votes for girl and 10 votes for boy. We'll find out for sure next week (unless the little bean doesn't cooperate in which case I'll be really disappointed!). We're really excited. Here's the latest prego picture from me at 21 weeks. Yes, my cheek is really shiny. And I promise I'm not trying to stick out my belly!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Kristen waited me out. I figured it was about time we had another post, and Kristen hasn't done it yet, so now you're subjected to one of my posts. Here's what we've been up to...

We stayed in C'ville for Christmas and New Years. Here's me doing something like Blue Steel with my beautiful Christmas stocking, which is about twice as big as Kristen's stocking. Santa got me lots of Reese's bells, which I've determined are not as good as Reese's minis. So now Santa knows for next year.
Here's Kristen with all of her Christmas loot. Note the birdseed on her lap. She seems to love telling people that I got her birdseed for Christmas. Maybe she's hoping that I'll feel sorry for her and buy her some more birdseed.

Then we went to St. George, Utah, for Kristen's sister's wedding. The luncheon was catered by the restaurant in this Holiday Inn. Congradulations Candice and Craig! Take luck with being married.
They got married in the St. George temple, which was really pretty, especially when the weather cleared up, and the sky was blue. It was nice to go to St. George, have some warm weather, and come back to C'ville where it's been in the 60s.
This is just another classy portrait that Kristen took of me outside the St. George temple. She always knows how to accentuate my good side. Thanks, Kriwten!

Guess what...

That's right! Little baby Durst is due June 4th-ish. I'm about 15 and a half weeks along and feeling pretty good. I've only thrown up a few times. We've gotten to see the baby 5 times so far. At first it looked like an egg, but now it looks like a cute alien. We're really excited! We'll find out if it's a boy or girl in Feb at about 21 weeks. Merry Christmas.

The Hap- Happiest Season of All

Tonight is my work party. Thankfully, one of the perks of being Mormon is that you don't have to worry about what you may accidentally DO at the Christmas party and not remember the next day:

However, you've still gotta love Elaine. This image used to dance before. I don't know why it's not working. Try this. P.S. Sorry for the swear word.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAN!

Today Dan turns the big 2-6! Have a great day, sweetie! I love you so much.

I WANNA BE A PART OF IT - NEW YORK, NEW YORK

We went to New Haven and New York a couple weekends ago, to visit Kristen's brother and sister-in-law and to see the city. Here are some of the highlights:

First, Kirk (Kristen's brother) took us to the local overlook. It must be a pretty popular make-out spot, as all good overlooks are.

Then Kirk and Gretchen (Kristen's sister-in-law) took us out for some famous New Haven "apizza" (that's New Havenese for "pizza"). It was as delicious as it looks.

Then we went on a tour of Yale's campus with Kirk, where Kristen took lots of really nice artistic pictures, and we learned that hamburgers, frisbees, education, diversity, and pants were invented at Yale. Where would we be without those guys?! Summer barbeques would sure be boring, I can tell you that much! Yale really did have a beautiful campus.

We went down to New York City and saw the Statue of Liberty. It was impressive. I didn't know that you could no longer go up to her head inside the statute. You can only go to the pedestal on which she stands. Oh well. It was still cool.

Then we went to Times Square, which also seemed like a pretty good make-out spot, judging by all the making out we saw there. We also went to Rockefeller Center and saw where they do the Today Show, which was exciting. They had the Christmas tree up too, though it was surrounded by scaffolding.

And perhaps most importantly, I got to chase some geese, which was a real blast.